2014.08.20/21/22 Kalitta Air Boeing 747

Wednesday, 20th August 2014
744 ARR 1225LT
742 ARR 1252LT
744 DEP 2158LT

Thursday, 21st August 2014
744 ARR 1703LT
742 DEP 2345LT
lack of photos due to being busy and unknown delay time during the night.

Friday, 22nd August 2014
744 DEP 1035LT

N741CK

N741CK

2014.08.16 777 JAL, A340 Iberia

Saturday after a holiday and a great day at an Air Force base with awesome equipment. Who would have thought that at a such short period of time, so much could happen around Warsaw. The Japan Airlines Boeing 777 arrival has been announced a couple of weeks ago, the Spanish A340 brought Real Madrid players for their friendly with Fiorentina (which came the day before to Modlin with LOT Polish Airlines) has been announced around a week ago.
Iberia ARR 1210LT DEP 0025LT
JAL ARR 1358LT DEP 1814LT
in addition a couple of photos made during the occasion

EC-LEU

EC-LEU

Preparing for a parade

15th August is a national holiday in Poland. For religious reasons and because it is the Army holiday. This year a parade takes place in Warsaw. Infantry, tanks, helicopters, fighters and more will ride through the city. The public will have a fantastic opportunity to see how our Army looks, and what they use.
Air trainings took place already for a couple of days prior to the parade, however, the final training took place one day before, on the 14th of August 2014 in Mińsk Mazowiecki. The air display flew over the airport just the way it will the next day over Warsaw. I was in a group of 30 people that got permission to enter the airport and photograph all the action. The event was organised by Foto Poork and proclub. Thanks to the latter we had a opportunity to lend some equipment for free for the day. So, instead of using my traditional set, i got a grip on the Canon 1Dx with the 100-400L lens from Canon. Well, it wasn't the only equipment I've been using. Apart from it I also used the 600mm Canon lens and the 6D body. I think I fell in love :)
To the point though, the photos (for full resolution open them in a new tab [ctrl+left click])

108

A double departure of 108 and 28

Red Bull Air Race 2014 - Gdynia! pt.2

This is the continuation of this post, in which you can find all the details about the race itself. Here you'll see photos from the second day of the event (27/07/2014), in a different post you can see the first day (26/07/2014).

Red Bull Air Race 2014 - Gdynia! pt.1

The story of me and the Red Bull Air Race goes back a couple of years. I had tickets to the race in Budapest in 2010, but unfortunately the series came to an premature end and the race was canceled. Seeing the pilots race above the Danube river with a great panorama of the city in the background, I believe would be something amazing! For the next years the championship didn't take place. Until now. In 2014 Red Bull announced that the series would be restarted. Whats more, one of the stops was planned in Poland, at the seaside, in Gdynia. Wonderful! Not only the championships are back but I don't need to go far to see it!

The pilots had their first official training on Friday evening. The next day after a training, it was time for the Challenger Cup, and Masters qualifications. Between all, different displays from Breitling. Sunday (photos here) begun with a flyby of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner followed by the Breitiling Jet Team. After that the Masters begun racing with the Top 12, Super 8 and Final 4. All the details can be found here.

I've also decided to group the photos by day, in this post you'll see photos from the first racing day (26/07/2014), in a different post you'll be able to see the second day (27/07/2014).

FR5033 WMI-GDN 2014.07.22

Needing to get to the polish Tricity for the RBAR in Gdynia I had a couple of possibilities.
1. Taking the car with friends - the road is fast and comfortable you're on a highway all the way;
2. Taking the train - with many trains to choose from, regarding the price, comfort and duration everyone will find something for themselves;
3. Flying to Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport - either with LOT Polish from WAW or Ryanair from WMI.

Luckily, a friend of mine was at the time at his summer house at the seaside, he agreed for me to stay with him for some time. Superb. So, what was left? Finding the best option for flights :)
After browsing the reservation system of both LO and FR I decided to buy a ticket with the Irish airline for 25pln (~€6) one-way from Modlin to Gdańsk. Flight departing at 1920LT and arriving at 2005LT.

The journey begun at 1715 at the Central Railway station in Warsaw where I departed on a train bound for Modlin where a shuttle bus was waiting to take the passengers from the train station to the airport. After almost an hour I've arrived at the terminal and with more than an hour to spare before the departure, I decided not to rush and have a look at the terminals' overview. Because this wasn't my first time at the airport, I knew there wasn't much to do on the air-side. That sure is a downside of that airport. Boarding was announced before the plane has arrived, and people queued up (even though everyone had assigned seats...). When everyone was let out from the terminal and was standing in a line in front of the airplane, and cabin crew was ready to take us on board, we where allowed to board the plane. Seat assigned: 18F, but because there was no one seating in the emergency exit rows, and CC needs someone to be seated aside the emergency exits so even before I occupied my seat, I've been assigned to move up to 17F. Yay! One good thing in the trip (well, two including the price). Departure from runway 08 on time, a quick turn left and a climb to 8km, after a while the captain started to descend. On our way we met a huge Cb cloud, which gave a fantastic background to the wing. Landing in Gdańsk before time, and 5 minutes after scheduled landing time I met up with my friend and was under his control from this time.